[net.lang.prolog] New Book on Prolog Multiprocessors

michaelw@nswitgould.OZ (Michael Wise) (10/07/86)

A book is soon  to  appear,  by  Michael  J.  Wise,  entitled  "Prolog
Multiprocessors".  It is being published by Prentice-Hall (Australia).
In a nutshell,  the  book  examines  the  execution  of  Prolog  on  a
multiprocessor.

     Starting  from  a   survey   of   some   current   multiprocessor
architectures,  and  a review of what is arguably the most influential
counter-proposal - the "data-flow" model,  a  model  is  proposed  for
executing  Prolog  on  a  multiprocessor.  Along with the model goes a
language based on Prolog.  The  model  and  the  language  are  called
EPILOG.  EPILOG employs both AND and OR parallelism.  Results are then
reported for the simulated execution of some Prolog programs rewritten
in  the  EPILOG language.  The book concludes with an extensive survey
of other multiprocessor implementations of Prolog.

     The book will be available in Australia from mid November, and in
US/UK/Europe  roughly  eight  weeks  later.   A  list  of  the Chapter
headings follows.  A more detailed list  can  be  obtained  from  your
local P-H representative, or by e-mailing to me directly.

                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by J. Alan Robinson
Preface

  1.  Parallel Computation  and the Data-Flow Alternative
  2.  Informal Introduction to Prolog
  3.  Data-Flow Problems and a Prolog Solution
  4.  EPILOG Language and Model
  5.  Architectures for EPILOG
  6.  Experimenting with  EPILOG  Architectures  -  Results  and  Some
      Conclusions
  7.  Related Work

Appendix 1 Data-Flow Research - the  First Generation
Appendix 2 EBNF Specification for EPILOG
Appendix 3 EPILOG Test Programs
Appendix 4 Table of Results